


Not Everything is Fixed

by BluePlanetTrash



Series: Papa Iverson Series [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Comforting Iverson, Father-Son Relationship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Lance (Voltron) Has PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Langst, Papa Iverson, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-08
Updated: 2018-04-08
Packaged: 2019-04-20 00:45:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,847
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14249418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BluePlanetTrash/pseuds/BluePlanetTrash
Summary: Tbh was not expecting the wave of emotions that hit when I read that Lance Iverson fic. But DAMN DID YOU GET ME GOOD! Can I just say that I love this so much! But also all of the possibilities! Like what about Lance having some ptsd about the explosion or maybe something else that might have happened during his time in the war and he gets stuck in a flash back while with his father and Iverson just holds him and tells him that everything is alright? Just some father/son bonding please!





	Not Everything is Fixed

Iverson had been there before, he had been on many tours to Afganistan, Iraq, you name it, he’s probably been there. He himself had to deal with the aftermath of going to a war-torn country many times over, he was just lucky that he had Rosa to help him through the worst of it. It put a strain on their marriage a few times over the years, sometimes they were closer to divorce then he was comfortable admitting but he was already missing his family more than he wanted with his job, he didn’t want to miss anymore, so they worked it out as much as possible. So he knew the struggles of PTSD.

Seeing his son struggle with it was much worse.

Ever since he had gotten back, he’s noticed that Lance wasn’t sleeping as much as he used to. Even if he had been going to a military school for years before going to space, in his off time he would sleep in until noon. It didn’t seem to be the case now though, he would see him at all hours of the day or night, just wandering around. Of course, he would join in, try to get him to go back to bed and just shut his eyes for a little bit. Even if he wasn’t sleeping, it would afford him a little rest.

It was hard to see him so tired and run down all of a sudden. The last time he saw him before he went missing, he was smiling, full of life, content to just run around with his friends when there wasn’t work to be done.

He suspected his newfound jumpiness was thanks to the lack of sleep as well but he couldn’t be sure. He had always been jumpy since he was a little kid, easy to startle and straight up scare. It was quite an entertaining thing as a father to sneak up and poke him in the back for a shrill shriek.

He tried to get Lance to talk to him about what he went through because he wanted to understand and help him cope with everything. When he finally got in touch with Sam Holt after they touched back down on Earth, he made it seem like the kids were far better off then he suspected they were. He wasn’t trying to undermine what Holt through or anything but from what he was told, it didn’t seem like he was doing any of the fighting their children had and was working instead.

It was only just setting in that his child, his little boy, had been fighting in a war.

He knew all too well what that was like. With the way the world had been going over the past few decades, it wasn’t a surprise that he had been sent out more often than not, it was when he was diagnosed with PTSD that he was retired and instead he was sent to the Galaxy Garrison to ready recruits to be sent out instead.

When Lance first stated his interest in attending the school, he wanted nothing more than to refuse and not allow him to go because he knew what could happen to him. Long tours across the sea, potential injuries, amputations, even death. That was just on Earth too; how was he supposed to know that the war he would be fighting wouldn’t even be on their planet?

How was he supposed to know that the war he would be fighting, he wouldn’t have the support that he had during his tours?

How was he supposed to know that the war he would be fighting, he would fight when he was seventeen?

It was hard for a parent to digest; he could barely remember what had happened when he was told that his son and his friends had gone missing during the lockdown. He had just gone blank and his mind had gone to static, he could barely function.

Seventeen.

He was too young to have to deal with stuff like this.

He shouldn’t have had to fight for the universe.

He was just a child.

And the battle wasn’t even over yet.

The war was just the beginning of his fight, the second battle was the recovery.

Many people thought that as soon as the war was finished soldiers could just go home and have no problem adjusting back to their lives from before they went to battle. Sometimes that just wasn’t the case.

He never thought that it would happen to his son, he hoped that it never happened to him, but,

There they were.

He was holding his shaking son in his arms trying to calm him. He had run for his quarters, trembling barely able to stand after having a nightmare. As he sobbed into the crook of his neck, tears welled up in his own eyes. He couldn’t describe the level of pain that he felt to see his own child so scared of his own mind. It was far more painful than anything he had experienced himself, without a doubt.

“Do you want to talk about it?” He asked quietly, soothingly rubbing his back as he waited for a reply. After a few moments, Lance shook his head no and instead just laid his head on his shoulder, trying to calm his rapid breathing.

“It’s okay, Lance, I’m here, everything is okay,” he chanted, holding him securely in his arms. A small choke came out of his throat before he wrapped his arms tightly around his back again and dug his fingers into his cotton t-shirt.

It was a long time before Lance was asleep soundly again but he didn’t dare let him go, too afraid that he would snap back into wakefulness. So there he sat, cradling him just as easily as he did when he was an infant.

No matter how old, or how big Lance would get, he would hold him in a heartbeat if he ever needed it.

* * *

From that point on he tried to keep Lance company as much as possible. He wanted to make sure that Lance wouldn’t try to isolate himself from others. As well as trying to make sure that Lance knew he could go to him whenever he needed to.

They had taken to walking around the base and talking to personal as they got used to life back on Earth again. Thankfully since he was Lance’s father, he got to slack off a little bit more from his duties. Not that it was something he would regularly do but his son did just come back from God knows where in a flying blue lion.

He thought that they were making progress, helping Lance get over some of the trauma of Voltron and creating another sense of self back on Earth. That is until one day when they were walking by one of the sciences buildings.

When he heard the explosion go off from the test site, he immediately turned to Lance; almost like it was instinct.

Lance had fallen to the ground, his hands scrabbling at his back almost mechanically as his face pressed into the ground and he mumbled into the floor. As he kneeled down beside him, he let out a loud sob before quickly devolving into loud bawling.

“It hurts, it hurts, it hurts,” he chanted over and over again, scratching at his back. As carefully as he could, he took hold of Lance’s wrists and brought them into his hands, not paying attention to the way they scratched into his own calloused palms.

“Lance, listen to me, you’re on Earth, you’re not where you think you are, I promise you,” he stated calmly and clearly. He kept repeating the statements until, Lance had stopped writhing and looked up at him with too large, teary, red eyes.

“Dad?” He rasped. Iverson gave him a gentle smile and helped him forward to collapse into his arms.

“It’s me, bud,” he said quietly. Lance’s chin wobbled once more before he started crying again, clutching onto his jacket once more.

“Can you tell me what you were seeing?” He asked with concern. Lance went to shake his head no before he stopped himself.

“The explosion, it sounded like the one I was trapped in,” he admitted, looking down at the ground instead of his father’s face.

“You were caught in an explosion?” He gasped in disbelief. Lance nodded slightly, tears rolling miserably down his cheeks.

“Kind of, they sent in a decoy and I was the only one that noticed so I pushed one of my friends out of the way, but I couldn’t move, I couldn’t speak, it was like I was passed out but I could  _feel_   _everything_ ,” he cried, his hand once again reaching for his back before Iverson caught it.

“It hurt so bad but I couldn’t do anything about it,”

He sounded so defeated, so unlike the Lance that he knew. It wasn’t anything that he could fix, that was the price of war.

“It’s okay, it’s over now Lance,” he soothed quietly. “I’m right here with you, it’s all okay,”

However, he could make it easier to bear.

He knew that Lance wasn’t the only one that had suffered during their battles for the universe. He knew for a fact that Shiro had not gotten away unscathed, the Kogane kid seemed less likely to get away from trauma too. He wasn’t sure about Garrett and Gunderson or Holt now but he wouldn’t be surprised if they were victims as well.

He just wanted to change something for those kids. Make their lives better after the service they had given to the universe. They might not agree with his methods at the time but it would always get worse before it got better.

It was the first time that he suggested one of his children get therapy. He knew how hard it was to go to someone and talk about what you’re going through and it was never a particularly great time, but it had made him feel better and he hoped it would make Lance feel better too.

“I don’t want you to go alone either, I want your whole team to go,” he said right after.

“But why?” He asked in confusion.

“I don’t want you to have to live with this your whole life because it’s not fun Lance,” Iverson said sombrely. “All of your teammates have gone through traumatic experiences and thought that they had to be tough enough to cope by themselves, they probably feel horrible about so many things and don’t even realize that they’re not the only ones. You need to support each other,”

He looked down for a moment in thought before he locked eyes with him and nodded with determination. He smiled and patted his back proudly.

Lance was strong enough to take the first few steps on his own, but if he ever looked back with the slightest hesitation. He would be there to help him along the way, no matter what.

**Author's Note:**

> Come visit my tumblr at blueplanettrash!


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